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"Four Wall, Wash Basin, Prison Bed" / Sutton's Law

This is another photo taken at the Eastern State Penitentiary. Unlike most other cells where paint is flaking and the walls are crumbling, this cell has been restored to the way it was at the time it was occupied. The Eastern State was opened in 1829 and operated continuously until 1970.

16 centuries ago, Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote: "An unjust law is no law at all". The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Approximately 1% of the U.S. population is incarcerated, with another 2% under correctional supervision. These rates are increasing at an alarming rate. About half of those in prisons are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, such as drug use and possession. Is the U.S. law just?

While people are sent off to jail for possession of marijuana, to date, no company or executive has been prosecuted for their role in the current financial crisis that has impacted the lives of so many us, despite systemic breaches in accountability and ethics and mounting evidence of fraud. People who smoke some weed harm nobody. Bankers who write bad loans, convert those to securities, sell them off to foreign investors and then bet against them, ruin the lives of many and destroy the world economy. Who should be in this prison cell?

One of the more famous guests of Eastern State Penitentiary, Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, is attributed to have said "because that's where the money is". Well, the money is at Wall Street these days; Guess where the criminals are going to be?

Sutton's famous answer has become the basis for Sutton's law: "the obvious should be considered first".